Angel Ramos, Creative Director of ANGEL RAMOS NY
How to describe Angel Ramos? A bold, stylish, confident and extremely charismatic character. A man with a distinct vision, the King of Pitti perhaps, and a man who hates a Windsor knot but knows how to make you look and feel incredible. Negroni and cigar in hand at all times and once named “America’s Best Dressed Man” by Esquire magazine. I think that may well about sum it up. Enjoy the wonderful story of Angel Ramos…
What got you into your job? Tell us your story...
I grew up in the trade, though not in the way people might imagine. My mother was a dressmaker, and as a child I resented it. She made everything for us—not out of romance, but necessity, and at the time I associated that craft with poverty rather than creativity.
Yet the one thing I adored were our trips to the fabric store. The hunt for a beautiful, unusual cloth the texture, the color, the possibility quietly became an obsession.
Years later, around 2005, just as I finished college and minor league baseball, I discovered The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman. It revealed something transformative: style wasn’t merely about buying a suit for work; it was a language, a lifestyle, a way of expressing who you are.
It still took me four years to enter the industry. No one would hire me. I kept hearing the same refrain: you have no experience. Eventually, after enough closed doors, I did something wonderfully irrational, I started my own house.
That decision became Angel Bespoke, now ANGEL RAMOS | New York.
What was your style like as a teenager?
As a teenager, I was what New York in the 1990s called a Lo-Life, a devoted collector of vintage Polo Ralph Lauren. I attended the High School of Art & Design in Manhattan, a place where style was practically a second language. My friends and I arrived each morning draped in vintage Polo, old The North Face, and assorted mountaineering gear dressed less for class and more as if we were preparing to summit Everest. It was excessive, slightly absurd, and unmistakably New York.
Was there a defining moment in your younger life that shaped the way you dress?
In 2007, eager to enter the world of menswear, I interviewed with a newly launched brand now quite well known whose founder ultimately declined to hire me. As I left, he offered a line I have never forgotten: “You’re just not a good fit for our brand.”
At the time it stung. But with time it became a principle I carry with me. A brand must have such clarity of vision that you instinctively know what belongs in your world and, just as importantly, what does not.
How has your culture, upbringing, or background influenced the way you see fashion?
Absolutely. Much of what people now romanticize as the Studio 54 aesthetic of the 1970s was deeply influenced by Afro-Latin musicians of the era men who entered the scene with extraordinary presence and equally extraordinary clothes. Think large, tinted aviator frames, sharp tailoring rooted in English tradition, but worn with the grit and attitude of New York.
That intersection; the elegance of tailoring with the swagger of the city in the 1970s and 80s profoundly shaped how I see fashion. It is, in many ways, the foundation of ARNY: an unapologetically louche approach to tailoring.
What was the first thing you ever designed that felt ‘right’?
A multi-cam triple ripstop raincoat, designed with Robert Spangle as the muse. Watching him wear it through Pitti Uomo in 2017 and later during Paris Fashion Week was the first time I saw an idea move exactly as it existed in my mind.
Talk us through your role and its contribution to your brand.
At the moment, my role is quite simple: Chief Everything.
For nearly a decade I had partners, but late last year I was fortunate enough to negotiate my way out of those arrangements and reclaim my brand my name, my likeness, and the company itself entirely. For that, I’m profoundly grateful.
So today I operate as if it were day two of starting the business fifteen years ago. I do everything from design, strategy, travel, fittings, the lot. In time I’ll rebuild a team so I can focus more fully on design and world-building, but for now there’s a certain satisfaction in the chaos. After all, it’s entirely mine again.
I’m just thankful in the position I’m now to call it all mine again.
Tell us a “I made it” moment in your career / a proud moment in your career.
One moment that truly felt like an “I made it” arrived in 2013 during a Monday Night Football broadcast an enormous stage in America. My client and friend Brandon Marshall was part of the ESPN commentary panel alongside several Hall of Famers, including Ray Lewis. It was a bitterly cold evening and the broadcast was being filmed outdoors, all of them wrapped in heavy overcoats.
At one point Ray Lewis paused to compliment Brandon’s coat, remarking on how sharp his style always was. Brandon smiled and replied, “Hey, all I wear is Angel Bespoke. I appreciate you giving me this moment to give my guy and tailor some shine, shout out to Angel Bespoke.”
Hearing my name mentioned on national television like that unscripted and generous was a moment I won’t soon forget.
Where does your process begin when you’re developing something new?
My process always begins in two places: film and fabric.
Cinema provides the mood, the attitude, the world the garment belongs to. Fabric, on the other hand, gives it life the texture, the weight, the way it moves on the body. Between those two elements, the story of the piece begins to reveal itself. use
What does pressure look like in your job and how do you deal with it?
Pressure is expectation from clients, from the market, from yourself and pressure to provide for your family. But it’s also the WHYS behind what drives me to go hard, and do what I do.
How do you want people to feel when they wear your clothes?
I want them to feel weightless as if they could float through a room and quietly command it. The garments should move with them effortlessly, draping the body in a way that feels natural, fluid, and entirely their own.
What’s the most worn item in your wardrobe right now?
Without question, and Ivory Dinner Jacket.
What’s one truth about fashion that took you years to learn?
You make your own rules.
Are you more stylish than your romantic partner?
As a couple, we are one so separating our styles would be impossible. We complement one another effortlessly, each sharpening the other’s instincts. Together it becomes something larger than either of us alone: a true house style, the Ramos look.
Underrated fashion icon?
Dodi Al Fayed's style was a VIBE.
What does success look like for your brand in the future? What are your dream projects?
Success, to me, is scale without dilution. Reaching a global client through a refined made-to-order platform that allows me to design more, and chase ideas without compromise.
Dream projects… I’m drawn to the idea of a resort collection for an Italian Hotel. Not just clothing, but a uniformed atmosphere. Something that lives within a place, not just on a rack.
What change do you wish to see in the fashion industry/the way people shop?
Buy less, but buy better.
There’s too much noise, too much disposability. I’d rather see people build a wardrobe with intention pieces that carry weight, memory, and longevity.
AI in fashion. What’s your take?
AI will inevitably become part of the process, but it should never replace taste.
It can assist with speed, with efficiency, even with access. But fashion, at its best, is instinct. It’s human. The danger is when everything starts to look correct, but nothing feels personal.
Do you think the industry gives designers enough space to evolve? Or puts too much pressure to stay relevant?
There’s far too much pressure to stay visible, and not nearly enough room to evolve quietly.
The best designers I admire didn’t chase relevance they built a language over time. Today, the industry rewards immediacy. But real work, meaningful work, requires patience.
What do you think matters too much in fashion right now? And where should the focus be more in the future?
Hype matters too much. Virality matters too much. There’s an obsession with being seen, rather than being understood.
The focus should return to craft, proportion, and identity. Clothes that have a point of view—not just a moment.
What references influence you outside of fashion?
Film, architecture, and people; it’s always people.
